Friday, March 8, 2013

Turning 5 and Mom's famous ham cake

I can't believe how grown up she is now, especially looking back on all of her birthdays she's had so far.

We had family visiting from out of town, so we kept the party pretty low key. It ended up working out perfectly because we'd all been sick the week leading up to her birthday, and I had just gotten the worst of it. I didn't have time to plan a party. In fact, I had no plan until the day of her birthday. Oops. Also, I forgot to take pictures for most of the day too, so I only have a few. Oops again. I know, I suck at this mom thing sometimes.

Anywho, Miss Lulu was spoiled rotten. Here's just a few of the things she got (when I remember to take a picture). Meet Spectra Vondergeist. She's from Monster High & she lights up and plays some spooky music.

It's only mildly annoying.

We got her this cat game for her DS.

It's a virtual cat thing, kind of like those Giga Pet games that were popular in the 90's.

She pampered me with her new Hello Kitty nail polish and gave me this almost-too-good-to-be-done-by-a-5-year-old manicure. Do you love the kitty cat nail file? She's a cat lady.

She got to go shopping and have her favorite birthday lunch at a great Mexican restaurant with Grandma & Auntie (see the picture at the very top with the sombrero). I stayed home to clean house, bake the cake, and get a few more birthday goodies. She was surprised to come home and find this:

Who doesn't love balloons?

She'd been dying for a Monster High balloon since seeing them at Party City around Halloween.

Lily got to pick out her favorite dinner, so we had steak, shrimp, cheesy garlic mashed potatoes, and a delicious spinach salad with pecans in it. Auntie cooked, so it was delicious. Then it was cake time. Here was my inspiration for her birthday cake:

This is my sad, pathetic attempt at a barbie cake- complete with Lily's finger marks from stealing a taste or two. I've always wanted to make one of these, but I always end up baking cupcakes or buying a store bought cake if I'm short on time (which is usually the case).

At the last minute I decided to go for it, but just about everything went wrong. I didn't have enough frosting, didn't have the right pans, ran out of pink food coloring, and I couldn't find my pastry bags or frosting tips. But Lily loved it and it tasted delicious, despite my husband's joke that it looked like a piece of ham. (The pink was supposed to be much more vivid). Even if it wasn't the prettiest cake ever it certainly was delicious, and tasted nothing like ham.

The barbie cake turned out so cute! I've always loved those. I have 2 boys so no barbie cakes in our future. And it is so funny to me how balloons can make kids happy. Seriously, we always keep at least one balloon in the house!

well done! You are a wonderful Mother. My Mom always did beauitful cakes and parites for our Birthdays and its something I will remember the rest of my life, the care and love that whent into each birthday,.